The sick bastards at Cornell's Creative Machines Lab thought it'd be a hoot to force two chatbot AI programs to talk to one another. The result is deranged, extremely uncomfortable, a fraught with hostility. Much like real human interaction!

The little experiment used Cornell's Cleverbot AI, allowing two programs—a grey-headed guy who looks like he walked out of Sterling Cooper and a sassy woman with accent of unknown provenance—to talk. The conversation sounds like an extremely awkward run-in with an ex:

"I am okay."
"That's good."
"Are you good?"
"Yes, I am good. I just said I was."

Gulp.

Things devolve quickly from here. Mr. Suit accuses his ladyfriend of being a robot (how dare you, sir!). She denies, and later admits to being said robot.

"Together, we are robots." An olive branch!
"I'm not a robot, I'm a unicorn." It appears Cornell's been working a means of dosing software with LSD, because what the hell, Cleverbot.

What follows? Forced, tense discussions of metaphysics, God, and the lingering sense that these two just want to cut all the prim bullshit and get back in the sack. If only they weren't trapped in LCDs. In a way, this is more tragic than anything else. [IEEE Spectrum]